Dr. McKechnie is the Interim Pastor at Sardis Presbyterian Church. Dave reveals, "I wake up enthusiastic about each new day-anticipating new things happening in my life, in the lives of my family, and in the lives of other members of the Body of Christ." Join us at Sardis Presbyterian Church for worship at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. each Sunday.

Monday, March 31, 2014

Know Your Audience

Recently, local public radio stations were
promoting their annual fundraising efforts and asking for pledges to keep the
station on the air. I had to chuckle when I heard one of them
proudly say, “We are in the homestretch of this campaign.We know our listeners. They are passionate, intelligent, and inquisitive.”At first blush I thought it was a rather pompous
and arrogant statement. Yet we know a
key to successful fund raising is to know your audience.

All of this made me think, what
about those who constitute a Christian audience on any given day?How would they be described?I am sure many are passionate, intelligent
and inquisitive.But is that a complete
description of the Gospel’s listening audience? I don’t think so, at least not according to
the Bible.

The Bible describes those sitting in the
pew (and standing in the pulpit) as sinners, in need of a Savior.We’re like lost sheep that have gone
astray.Even with all of our passion and
intelligence and inquisitive minds, we can’t save ourselves.Our human cleverness comes up empty at the
foot of the cross.

This kind of honest look in the mirror is
often avoided, even in the church. We
don’t like to be told we fall short nor do we easily accept that we cannot save
ourselves by our human effort.Paul told the church at Ephesus “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your
own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so
that no one may boast.” I guess
that is why the cross will always seem foolish to some audiences while to us it
is amazing good news!(I Corinthians
1:18)

We are headed down our own homestretch of
another Lenten season, and if we are paying attention and listening, we know
what lies ahead: the cross, sign of the
power of God’s love to save us.We are
the audience hearing the good news of the Gospel.How
can we be described?Paul wrote about
believers as “us who are being saved." We
may be passionate, intelligent, and inquisitive, but if the world knows us as
people “being saved” then that description is the best one of all.